Quick and Easy Baby Sweater

One of the projects I had started for the holidays was the Quick and Easy Newborn Sweater.  I found the pattern on Ravelry, of course.

.  I really liked the garter texture on this pattern, it's something a bit different.  But I think if I try it again at a later date I'll probably modify it to be in stockinette stitch and maybe add some duplicate stitch designs for variety.   The only other problem I've found with the pattern is that I really think it's going to be a bit too large for a newborn.  My guess is it will probably fit the 3 month crowd a bit better than a newborn.

I'm excited for the next project even though I haven't completely decided what I'll be doing yet.  I think that the next one will likely be a baby blanket, I just don't know which pattern I'm going to work up yet.  I still have The Afghan from Hell to finish, just the fringe, but my yarn for it is out in the crib/workshop and there is seriously about 4 ft. worth of snow drifts blocking me from it.  I would like to get that finally finished and out of the way though.  That thing has been mocking me since I started it, not necessarily because it's difficult but simply because it's TEDIOUS. 

My mother in-law has an afghan she wants me to start on once I'm finished with The Afghan from Hell so hopefully I'll be able to make it out to the workshop in a couple of days to collect the yarn and finish it so I can start on her project.   The afghan she wants done is going to be a bit of a challenge because it was already partially started by DH's grandmother before she passed but there is no pattern.  Therefore, I'm going to have to figure out the pattern and gauge before I can really get any amount of meaningful progress done on that blanket. Fortunately, I don't think the pattern is overly difficult and I think, once it's figured out, it should work up pretty quickly.

Artisan Sourdough Bread and Crochet Sandwhiches

Our Random Acts of Kindness experiment has gone really well.  The kids have really enjoyed getting involved, which is great.  Some of our random acts included cheering on the walkers for the Multiple Sclerosis relay, baking treats for shelter animals and our own furry friends, writing get-well-soon letters to the grandfather of one of Oldest's friends, and picking up trash at the nature center while we hiked.   When we started I thought 30 days would be hard to accomplish but now that we are almost to the end of our month long RAK, it seems like it all went pretty quickly.  Hopefully we have developed some "kindness habits" that will stick around for awhile.

I had mentioned in a previous post (although I don't remember which one) that I was knitting and crocheting play food for the kids to use in their toy kitchen.   Well, I finally got around to taking pictures of the sandwiches I made for them.

 

Peanut Butter and Jelly. 

 

 The jelly in the picture came out looking a little blue but in reality it's purple (grape).

Sandwich number 2.

This is the ham, roast beef, cheese, lettuce, tomato and pickle sandwich.

The bread and peanut butter and jelly pattern came from craft frog.  The ham and tomatoes I found on the lion brand website (free membership required).  The roast beef was my own adaptation of the knit ham from lion brand. However, instead of knitting in stockinette, I knitted it in garter stitch.  The lettuce pattern comes from the hook, yarn and needles blog.  The pickles were my own creation.  A simple crochet in the round pattern with single crochet stitches.  It took me a weekend to make and the kids LOVE it.  

I've also been baking more bread.  Making bread and noodles seems to be the majority of my time spent in the kitchen these days.  Recently I tried my hand at artisan sourdough bread.  

I really like the process of making the artisan style loaf, which is totally different than the traditional loaf I usually make.   There were fewer steps with this loaf of bread than the traditional loaves.  No kneading was necessary and it only had to rise once.   I appreciated that fact tremendously.  However, I've learned from this experience that I'm not a big fan of sourdough bread.  I do not like it Sam-I-Am and neither do the kids.  Hubbs thoroughly enjoyed it though.  He ate half the loaf on his own the first day.  He ate the other half the second day.  So for his sake alone, I'll be making it again some time.  For the rest of us, maybe I'll try a rustic white bread next time.  I think the sourdough flavor was just a little too robust for my liking. 

Monkey In The Middle

I just finished the monkey square for youngest's "monkey in the middle" knitted afghan.  The square is actually intended to be an 8"x8" dishcloth but I increased the size a bit by using a much larger needle (size 7 US) than what was called for in the pattern so my square ended up being about 10"x10". 

The square is super cute but the pattern, which you can find for free here, is not one for mindless knitting.  If you intend to make a square while watching some super exciting movie on TV then this is one you'll want to skip.  The stitches are easy, no lace or eyelets, just plain knit and purl stitches so if you have the time and quiet to be able to focus just on the knitting for awhile then this is definitely worth it.  It took me about 12 hours to complete the whole thing and that was with the usual distractions that come with three kids, although some things, like my sink full of dirty dishes, got pushed to the back burner for the sake of this monkey. 

The plan is for this to be the center square (hence the monkey in the middle moniker) surrounded by plain, solid squares in this blue and a complimentary green.  I'll have to make about 34 plain squares if my calculations are right but those should work up pretty fast since they are going to be just stockinette stitched squares with a popcorn border to match the monkey square.

P.S. In case anyone is wondering, the monkey is symbolic.  DH and I affectionately refer to each of our children as Monkey #1, Monkey #2, and Monkey #3 due to their climbing, jumping, running, and general tendency towards wreaking good natured havoc.

Oldest's Hat

Oldest's hat is now finished. It's just a basic hat pattern; cast on 84 on size 8 16" circular needles, join in the round, knit a k2 p2 ribbing for 2 inches, then stockinette stitch for 6 more inches, then begin the decreases k10 k2tog across, knit the next round,    the next round k9 k2tog across, knit the next round, next round k8 k2tog.across, knit the next round and so decreasing the number of knit stitches every other round by one until you k2tog all the way across. (At some point, about the k5, k2tog point, you'll have to transfer to size 8 dpns).  Then cut about a 6in tail and thread it through the remaining stitches and pull it tight to finish the hat, weave in the ends, and viola'! You have your hat.

She picked out the fuzzy pink yarn herself.  If you are looking for the same, it's Sensations Angel Hair yarn color #647.

The hat will fit most older children and adults so go on out and make yourself a hat!

Space Invaders

Anybody who has ever owned an Atari or played old school arcade games will easily recognize the little green men on Middle's latest hat.

Space Invaders! I used to rock at this game as a kid.  Middle LOVES video games, I literally have to pull him away from them after his 1hr time limit is up. So when I came across this pattern on Ravelry I immediately thought of him and since his old hat was worn and ripped, he was presented last night with this brand new one.   He adores it. He's even been wearing it to bed. He refuses to take it off.  It's nice to see someone you love enjoying the things you make for them.

On the homesteading front, we are continuing to plant the starter seeds for spring.  The kids have each picked out their own seeds to grow this year from their grandfather's farm and from our own collection here at home.  Their garden was a huge success last year and they are really excited to start up again this year.

The kids (and I) really enjoyed the break in the winter weather last week.  The boys spent ALOT of time playing with their wagon and collecting "treasures" in the yard.  Ah, to be young again...

On the Homeschooling Front

I think homeschooling is tough in January.    For us, January is kind of a blah month anyways but by this point in our homeschooling year the inspiration well is starting to run a little dry, the kids have cabin fever, and it's difficult to get up the motivation to really hunker down and work as opposed to popping some popcorn, making some cocoa, and watching a good movie.  We're hunkering down and "getting her done" anyways, although we have had a couple of movie days here and there.

Oldest is breezing through her OHVA workbooks and online instruction. She's doing really well in reading, struggling a bit in math (I suppose she gets that from her mother) but she's improving.  Her Bible studies are going well and she's loving the art class we signed her up for at the cultural center in town. She's still doing girl scouts and will be visiting the senior citizens center this weekend which she is excited about doing.

Middle is working on reading through the funnix program and really enjoying it. We downloaded a free copy from their website. Which is awesome because the program is usually $249 and with this promotion you get the entire program, both funnix begging reader program and funnix 2 plus the teachers guide, workbook, and stories, for free. I mean, seriously awesome deal.

Middle is doing really well with the math worksheets that we're giving him and his letter writing is coming along really well. He's looking forward to little league in the spring and karate in a couple of weeks. Both oldest and middle are going to see Seussical at the theater tomorrow so they are extremely excited about that.

So, as you can see, even though it gets a bit boring around January, we still have plenty that we are working on.

As far as my knitting goes I finished the intarsia square, YAY!!! I only had to frog it a total of six times but it came out alright in the end.



Odds and Ends

Well, after tearing out my knitting twice more since my last post, I'm finally making some decent progress and I admit that I've learned alot about intarsia knitting in the process.  

That is what I have done so far.  Hopefully by tomorrow I'll have it nearly completed but that all depends on how much free time I get after church. 

I also made a run to Joann Fabrics today and picked up a really cute "quilt in a box" on clearance.   I have been wanting to make a lap quilt for a good friend of mine for a couple of months now but couldn't find the time to get the fabric and start cutting.  The nice thing about the quilt-in-the-box is that the fabric is all there for me (except the backing fabric and batting but that's no big deal) and it's all cut and ready to go.   Should move fairly quickly from here.  

Beyond that we've been starting to look through our seed catalogs and online to start to plan this spring's garden.  I'm thinking that we are only going to add a handful of new items this year including a "flat wonderful" peach tree and some "sugar baby" watermelons.  I can't hardly wait for this snow to disappear so I can get out there and dig!

Knitting Charts Hate Me

It's true, knitting charts can't stand me.  I don't really know why but they get a kick out of confusing the crap out of me. You see, for my New Year's resolution for this year was to improve my mad knitting skillz by learning colorwork.  So I started with a knifty little intarsia pattern knit along (KAL) on one of my Ravelry groups. It is a single 9" argyle square pattern with a seed stitch border.  I've been working on it for 2 days.  2 DAYS!!! And this is as far as I've gotten:

At first glance this may not look to bad.  However, I had major trouble with the seed stitch border at first so I ended up having to go by "common sense" instead of what I could decifer from the chart because when I tried to decifer from the chart my border went from seed stitch to k1p1 rib. Once I managed to deal with the seed stitch issue I felt momentarily triumphant, then I saw the hole.  

See that little space there about 4 stitches in where you can see the table through the piece?   Yeah, that's not supposed to be there. I also somehow ended up with 2 extra stitches on my needle.  How that happened I have no idea.   Soooo, I decided to frog the whole thing and start all over.   Maybe I'll have better luck this time around.

Yet another craft fail.

Oh Sock, Why Do You Mock Me...

I started a second pair of baby socks for Youngest yesterday and was already finished with the first sock by this afternoon.   I was pretty proud of it since I had finished it so fast (usually it takes me at least two days to finish one sock..I knit slow).   I couldn't believe my luck!   I figured I must be getting better at this since I was so obviously moving much faster than usual.  

So here I was feeling rather proud of myself when I decided to try the sock on Youngest's foot.   I found that while the cuff fit perfectly, the heel was right smack in the middle of his foot.   It didn't fit, at all.   Then I realized why this project had gone so quickly for me.  You see, when it comes to knitting the instep and the toe the pattern says something like this K6, K2tog, around.   Next row, Knit.  Next row, K5, K2tog, around.  And then you continue on like that, knitting every other row.   And that's the part that I forgot.  So instead of decreasing in one row and knitting the next row, I decreased every flipping row.   So I ended up with a sock that was half the size that it was supposed to be. 

This cute little sock that was going to keep Youngest's feet toasty warm is now a Christmas tree ornament and I did a full face-palm.  Knitting fail. :p

Thrifty Thursday (on Friday again)

Do you like to knit?   Do you hate spending all that money on knitting needles?   Well, now you can make your own.  

I made a few size 6 bamboo knitting needles out of 12 in. bamboo skewers and a few beads.   The skewers cost me $1.99 for 100 of them.  The beads I had on hand, but you could pick up a bag of beads for about $2.99.  One set of 12 in. bamboo knitting needles would cost you anywhere from $5.75 to $8 or $9.   Custom knitting needles can cost you anywhere from $10 to $20. 

The only other thing you need is fine grit sandpaper to smooth out the points and some of the rough spots on the bamboo.  

The first step is to pick out to skewers that are nice and straight and are the same length. 

Next, smooth out the points and the rough edges with your sandpaper.

Then pick out two beads that have a wide enough hole to fit at the end of the skewer.  If it's a tight fit you can get away with just twisting the beads on, but if there is a bit more room then clue the beads on with craft clue or E600.

Wait for your glue to dry and then, tada!  you have custom knitting needles!

If you want different sizes or different types of wood then you can always use wooden dowels.   You would just need to create a point using a standard run of the mill pencil sharpener.  You can customize them further with paints or wood stain just make sure to pick a paint or a stain that isn't going to come off onto your hands or your project.

The World's Fastest Knitter

Check her out.  It probably takes her all of a couple of hours to knit a hat.  It takes me like two weeks. LOL.

The Last Knit....

When knitting becomes an obsession...

Fiber Festival

"Mooo"

Today started out pretty busy.  We went out to the farm to feed the cows in the morning.  We weeded in the flower beds and got those mostly cleaned up.   Then I spent much of the afternoon cleaning off the back porch and doing laundry. 

I was really hoping to hit the fiber fest by 3pm.  BUT, we didn't even make it out the door until 4:40pm.   I thought that today's booths were open until 6pm but they actually closed at 5pm.  We got there with 10 minutes to spare. 

I didn't manage to get a chance to pick up any yarn which bummed me out.  BUT, the trip wasn't a total bust.  The kids found some really cute knitted finger puppets.

One is an alpaca and the other is a sheep.  This picture doesn't do them justice. 

I also managed to find a few size 3 and 4 circular knitting needles which our local JOANN's doesn't seem to carry.   I searched for them online but they ranged from $8 to $12.   I found these for under $2 each.   I couldn't believe it!

The fiber festival continues through tomorrow so I just might make my way back there, depending on if I can justify spending more time away from the household chores.  We may even be able to catch some time at the arts and crafts show tomorrow if we head over there.    I'm kind of looking forward to seeing the afghans and such at that so hopefully we'll get to take a little time without cutting too much into our schedule.  

Youngest's Hat...Finished

The picture still isn't the greatest.   The weather here has been pretty dreary the last couple of days so there wasn't much natural light to utilize. 

Add to that the fact that no matter what I tried, I just could NOT get that little bugger to sit still long enough to get a good picture.   So I ended up with a poorly lit picture of the back of his head.  Tadaaa!

The hat itself went along just fine until I hit the last 4".   I ended up working the wrong ribbing and had to frog the whole bottom 4.  This may not seem like such a big deal to more experienced knitters, but I STINK at frogging and it took me a good 45, anxiety filled, minutes to rip it back that mere 4".

I did it though and was happy with the final result...that is until I went to sew the sides together.   I tackled the sewing at around 2 am. after a very long day and I was downright exhausted.   The next morning I took a look at the hat.  It was a disaster.  

I had sewed it cock-eyed so that the stripes didn't match up.  The darker yarns hadn't been worked in properly and were really visible amongst the white sections and one corner was very much so rounded while the other came to a nice point.  Chock that up to a craft fail.

Soooo, I had to rip the seams and sew it all over again.  Fortunately though that didn't take very long and the finished product turned out by the end of it all.  

Now, on to more projects.

One of the coolest knitting related video's I've ever seen.

This is an animation made using over 700 real intarsia knit pieces.   Crazy awesome.  

Middle's Stocking Cap

I finally finished Middle's stocking cap.    It's a variation of the pattern seen here.

It's a little big on him but I like it all the same.

It gives him room to grow into it, I guess.

My First Attempt at Knitting in the Round

This was my very first attempt at knitting in the round.

As I've mentioned on here before, I'm new to the knitting scene.

Since I've taken up this new passion about 4 months ago, I've knitted one hat for oldest, one for youngest (that didn't fit) and now this one for me, myself and I.

I still have to knock out one for middle.  I have my eye set on one that I think will be really cute for him but I wanted to try knitting a larger one in the round first.  I figured that it would be easier to go larger.  I don't remember the logic behind that thinking at the moment...

It fits pretty nicely and definately keeps my head toasty warm.

It took about 3 days and that's with almost constant interruption (as in...sit down, knit 5, "MOM!", get back up, sit down, knit 6 ,"MOMMY!", you get the idea)

*Thank you to Fremont Frog for modeling for me, I'm a wee bit camera shy*

Aside from a rocky start (I could NOT for the life of me figure out how to eliminate that giant gap in between the first and last stitches when I joined the round.  SO, I googled it.  There's almost no problem google can't solve.  Turns out, you just pull the the first knit stitch you make when joining the round extra tightly.  Who knew?) I think it went pretty smoothly. 

I used leftover worsted weight variegated yarn.

A size 8 16in. circular needle

4 size 7 DPNs.

1 tapestry needle

stitch marker

The hat is done in a basic pattern.

Using the circular needle, cast on 70.

K1 P1 for about 2 inches.

Then knit in stockinette (knit each stitch) for about 6 inches.

K8 K2tog for 1 row

Knit the next row

(You'll want to switch to the DPNs about now)

K7 K2tog for 1 row

Knit the next row

K6 K2tog for the next row

Keep going like that until you K2tog across the row and/or you have about 6 sts remaining.

Cut thread leaving about a 4 inch tail.

Thread tail through tapestry needle and then carefully weave through remaining sts, pull tightly.

Weave in your ends, making sure to finish with a little bit of your tail left over on the wrong side of you hat.

And that's it. FIN.